


Ties that blind

by Nillegible



Series: Percy Weasley Fics [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fred Weasley Lives, Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood Hinted At, Post-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 08:23:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19128229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nillegible/pseuds/Nillegible
Summary: It starts with one of the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes’ new Christmas crackers.(Remembering that Percy survived one hellish year at the Ministry, alone)





	Ties that blind

**Author's Note:**

> So, I was sitting on this forever, because I thought it was the first chapter of a longer fic. Realized today that it's a perfectly nice stand-alone that I can revisit later if I like.

  
It starts with one of the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes’ new Christmas crackers. Fred and George are testing a new line of them in late August (‘You think we should test these out in _November,_ Charlie?’ George had asked incredulously), and the Weasleys’ dining room has become an impromptu lab strewn with hats and confetti.

Ron and Harry pull at another one that explodes into fluttering confetti butterflies and a pink tiara, and Ron scowls but George smirks at that one appreciatively. Some of them are faulty; one had spewed black ash and made an eerie hissing noise, while another sent out miniature fireworks that singed Charlie’s hair (kind of used to that by now, he admits, cheerfully). He and Fred take notes, careful to mark the faulty ones. Mum appears from the kitchen to tut at them and order them to clean up because she needs her dining table back.

 

One cracker, somehow, doesn’t make it to the box they’d packed away the samples in. Halfway through lunch, he sees Ginny pick it up. She holds it up more than half a table away from him, and raises an eyebrow,  _‘You need this?'_  He shakes his head, no, and watches as she holds one side and offers the other end to Ron, who grins and takes the other end.

There’s a CRACK and a burst of green light from the fireworks inside, and suddenly he’s being pushed back by something invisible, his chair scraping on the floor as he’s forcefully moved, yells and gasps as the others feel it too. He has his wand out and is on his feet the moment it stops, as is nearly everyone. There’s no visible threat but there was…was that a protego charm? He pokes at it with his wand, and yes, it is.

“Was that supposed to happen?”

“Okay, what the hell just-?”

“Oh, Percy,” Mum’s voice, sharp, worried, vexed, cuts through the questions, and George realizes that his youngest older brother is the only one still in his seat, though his wand, too, is out. He’s turned chalk white, and for the first time that George can properly remember, Percy looks absolutely terrified. He’s staring at the remnants of the cracker still in Ron’s hand, then whispers a “ _finite incantatem_ ,” that has the shield charm dissipate.

The room’s still unnervingly quiet as they stare at Percy, who’s looking down at his plate, pallor slowly replaced by a blotchy embarrassed red. “I’m sorry I overreacted.” Half the dishes on the table have been ruined by the shield charm including Percy’s own plate that was facedown, the food splattered over his left sleeve.

“You’ve been holding out on us, Perce!” says Fred. “Those are excellent reflexes, wouldn’t you say, boys?” adds George. There’s a bit of nervous laughter but Mum just keeps staring, and Percy just rises from his seat with his upturned plate and walks into the kitchen. There’s the sound of a plate being placed in the sink, the door opening and closing, and the loud crack of a messy disapparition, a few moments later.

“Shit, what happened to him?” asks Ginny. Mum’s pinching the bridge of her nose, and she doesn’t respond.

It’s Bill who finally breaks the awkward silence, “He was at the Ministry. Until the very end.” That’s true, Percy had shown up to at Hogwarts the day of the final battle still wearing his ministry robes. He had only resigned right there during the battle.

(And then he’d just gone back to work the next day like nothing had happened. Like Voldemort hadn’t been killed, like his previous boss hadn’t been imperiused by Death Eaters. Although Percy had already had practice at that, hadn’t he?)

“Charlie could you…” Bill trails off.

“Check on him and make sure he hasn’t splinched himself? Sure,” says Charlie, and strides out of the room.

They fix their lunch and sit down to eat again, Bill and Ginny trying their best to keep the conversation light. There’s a stilted awkwardness, though, and George supposes that they’re all thinking the same thing. Why hadn’t they ever considered the danger that Percy was in?

Except for Mum, he thinks, who has gone all flinty-eyed and tight-lipped. She’d been the only one to be afraid for him, to reach out even to have it tossed back in her face.

(Only in the beginning though, only under Fudge and Scrimgeour. Even Mum hadn’t been able to slip out to appeal that Percy see sense after their family had gone into hiding. With Ginny at school, and Ron skipping out with Undesirable Number One, she couldn’t afford to make the effort.)

Percy was an adult. Mature. Responsible. He could take care of himself.

George thinks that what’s hanging heavy and dark over the dinner table is that no one had realized that he had needed to.)

0o0o0o0

Charlie apparates to Percy’s London address, grateful that he’d thought to ask Mum for the location all that time ago. Before they went into hiding, leaving one younger brother outside to deal with the world by himself. He’d thought of it, in passing, between missions for the Order, but Percy’s face at the table had driven the thought home.

The door to his flat is slightly ajar. Pushing it open warily, he finds Percy sitting just inside the door, long legs folded in, arms crossed over his knees, and breathing heavily. “It’ll be okay Perce, just keep breathing. Remember how we count it out, take a deep breath, exhale through your mouth, darling,” the voice, though terribly familiar, takes Charlie a moment to place.

“Oliver?” The voice is coming through a small handheld mirror that’s lying on the floor beside Percy. “Perce, are you okay?”

“Charlie Weasley, thank god. He’s having a panic attack and I’m overseas.”

Charlie ignores the voice of his ex-Quidditch Keeper, concentrating on his little brother instead. “You’re doing great Perce,” he says, watching him regulate his breathing. “Can you hear me?” Percy doesn’t answer so Charlie slips his hand over Percy’s pulse point. It’s fast, extremely fast, and he tries again. “Percy, can you hear me? You’re safe, we’re in London, your wards are excellent,” _but you forgot the door_. "You're _safe_ ," he repeats. Percy takes a loud, gasping breath, but he nods.

“Can you speak?” but Percy’s eyes just widen and he’s going with that means no, and Charlie demands, “Does he have a calming draught anywhere?” of the worried voice in the mirror. “Secret shelf in the bedroom, but you can summon it.” Charlie _accios_ a small vial of the potion, neatly labeled in Percy’s small handwriting, and asks, “Can you take this yourself?” Shaking hands reach out for the vial, and Charlie unstoppers it and helps guide the potion to Percy’s lips. It takes a few moments, but the potion must be potent. The shaking slows, and Percy takes a deep breath that sounds normal, exhaling it audibly. He looks focused when he looks up at Charlie again.

“I’m alright, thank you.”

“Sweet Merlin, Perce, you scared me!” says Wood.

“Forgive me for disturbing your holiday,” says Percy to the mirror, lifting it up to smile weakly at the other man.

“You’ll be okay?” asks the tiny, worried image of Oliver Wood.

“Of course,” says Percy firmly. “Thank you,” and shuts the mirror.

Then they’re alone in the small entryway of Percy’s small flat. “I’m sorry,” says Percy quietly. “Did I ruin lunch?” Percy’s been taller than him for years at this point, but right now he’s curled in on himself and pathetic looking. It keeps Charlie from blurting out the dozens of questions that come to mind, including: how long have you been having panic attacks, why didn’t you tell us, what happened to you during the war (and this time, this time Charlie wouldn’t take ‘I just kept my head down and did as I was asked, Charlie! Everything was fine’ as an answer), and probably also _why did Oliver Wood call you darling_?

“Lunch will be fine. Do you…want to go back?” he asks, instead of the far more pressing questions. Charlie knows how to be patient when dealing with volatile, frightened creatures…and at this particular moment, he feels instinctively that it would be better to treat Percy as one.

“I can make a sandwich for myself, that’s alright. You should head back. I’m sorry to take you away from your lunch.” Percy sounds curt, embarrassed, and on a different day, Charlie might acquiesce and leave him to it.

“Do you not have extra bread?” Charlie asks, which somehow brings a shy smile to Percy’s face.

“That would depend on how hungry you are.”

_(It started with a Christmas cracker that flashed green and triggered a panic attack. It started with Charlie staying for lunch, and learning that Oliver Wood knew where the calming draught in Percy’s bedroom was. It starts with the uncomfortable idea that Percy could have been tortured, or imperiused, or killed, and that they would not have known._

_That, trying to keep themselves alive, they might not have cared._

_It starts only after the war ends, because the smaller horrors were drowned out by the war.)_

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you liked it, please leave me a review if you have a minute to spare!


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